
WTI Magazine #57 2015 April, 3
Author : Simone Callisto Manca Translation by:
The year in the engine competitions could not have started better for our colors: the green, the white but above all the Red. Indeed, a single triumphant Sunday has seen the comeback of two Italian legends: Ferrari, after almost two years, with his new driver Sebastian Vettel; and the multiple world champion Valentino Rossi, who preceded other two Italian drivers, Luca Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone.
Let's start from Ferrari, "the Red": 2014 was a horrible year. No victory in even one Grand Prix; a change of team manager in the middle of the Championship, from Stefano Domenicali to Marco Mattiacci; a car always much slower than the opponents (not only the elusive Mercedes, but also Red Bull and Williams); the controversy between its President Montezemolo and the head of the Fiat - the company that controls the "Cavallino" - Sergio Marchionne.
Marchionne is interested not only into the sport results, but also to the economic one: with the birth of FCA, formed by the merger between Fiat and Chrysler, the Italian-Canadian manager could not afford a Cavallino without appeal, if he wanted to break into the world of luxury even in the US. So, he has started a deep company renovation, in three moves.
First: being President of Ferrari, replacing Luca Cordero di Montezemolo. The signal was clear: not only Ferrari is controlled by Fiat - or rather by Fca - but it is an integral part of it. Who says Ferrari says Fca, and vice versa.
Second: as team manager, Maurizio Arrivabene replaced Marco Mattiacci. A 58 years old native of Brescia, already in the orbit of the Agnelli family, Arrivabene has been for almost 20 years at the highest levels of Philip Morris management. A very different profile from that of his two predecessors, Mattiacci and Domenicali, who had spent their whole career in Ferrari, from the bottom up to the highest office in the sports arena. With this choice, Marchionne's signal was even clearer: choose an external manager to "tidy up" and start from scratch.
Third: if reset it is, it has to involve everyone, including pilots. So, off the Spaniard Fernando Alonso, after five seasons in which he only got close to win the Championship in 2010 and 2012; in the German Sebastian Vettel, four times world champion between 2010 and 2013. With this choice Marchionne wanted to bet on Vettel's desire for redemption, back from a season of setbacks with Red Bull and also passed by his teammate, the Australian rookie Daniel Ricciardo.
The occasion was perfect for Vettel to prove his real value: and after a third place in Australia in the first race of the season, now comes the victory in Malaysia, ahead of the two Mercedes driven by Rosberg and Hamilton. It is still early to rejoice and exaggerate with the celebrations: this Ferrari was not built to win the World Cup, but just to do well this season and to get some satisfaction. The return to the top was planned over a period of 2-3 years. If Ferrari were to turn in the first antagonist of Mercedes - who last year won virtually unrivaled - and succeed to keep open the Championship as long as possible, that would be like a victory. If then something more will come, well, we all will celebrate.
There is a lot of the history of Ferrari, the old Formula One aristocracy which has now momentarily turned into an outsider without the degrees of the favorite and gest back on the highest rank, in the undertaking of Valentino Rossi, who won the first Grand Prix of the MotoGP season in Qatar, ahead of Luca Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone, two other Italian pilots who race for the Italian Ducati.
A revival not only for the "old" Valentino (he is 36), smiling again after two years spent in Yamaha, back from a dark period in Ducati; but also for Luca Dovizioso, who has been racing for many years in MotoGP without ever having the possibility to compete at the highest levels. The challenge to the "cannibal" of the last two seasons, the still favorite Spaniard Marc Márquez, is open.
Andrea Iannone is instead a 25 years old promise, and could be the new hope of Italian motorcycling. The generation of Rossi and Dovizioso, who luckily show no signs of giving up yet, may soon have a worthy substitute.
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